Executive Branch

Rep. Steve Crisafulli, R-Merritt Island, formally moved into one of the most-powerful jobs in the state Tuesday, becoming the House speaker. First elected in 2008, Crisafulli has chaired the House Agriculture & Natural Resources Subcommittee, was deeply involved in redistricting efforts and served as House majority leader under former Speaker Will Weatherford. After graduating from Brevard Community College and the University of Central Florida, Crisafulli began his long association with the Brevard County Farm Bureau, where he was both director and president. Crisafulli is a seventh-generation Floridian and a member of a prominent citrus family. A cousin, the late Doyle E. Carlton,...

Related "Executive Branch" Articles

Rep. Steve Crisafulli, R-Merritt Island, formally moved into one of the most-powerful jobs in the state Tuesday, becoming the House speaker.
First elected in 2008, Crisafulli has chaired the House Agriculture & Natural Resources Subcommittee, was...

Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the most-prominent Democrat in South Florida, is at a political crossroads.She's just won her sixth term in the U.S. House of Representatives with 63 percent of the vote. And she's been chairwoman of the Democratic National...

It is time for Florida to lead.
Every once in awhile in the history of this great country, the federal government just can't get the job done. Partisan gridlock, constitutional uncertainty, public distrust all play a role. But one of the great...

Get ready, because the coronation is coming. The first families of American politics are on a collision course, and one of them will be crowned in two years. As loyal subjects, we are watching it all happen in their realms. You don't need a crystal ball...

The question of who will govern Florida is settled and there's a consensus on the next step in planning Florida's gambling future.
But after that...
Casino operators, legislators and others in the gambling industry met Tuesday for the annual Florida...

There were three proposed constitutional amendments on the Florida ballot. Voters were discerning. One was rejected. A second came just short of approval. The third – Amendment 1 – was overwhelmingly approved.

The 2014 election wasn't a good one for Florida's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.
LGBT organizations supported Democrats Charlie Crist for governor and George Sheldon for attorney general, but both lost. So did state Rep. Joe...

Remember Bush vs. Gore? They've done it again with Citizens United allowing undisclosed tainted money from the fat cats to buy elections under the guise of free speech. Their secret money lets them run scurrilous attack ads with impunity. Charlie Crist...

Taxpayer money intended for hurricane recovery could possibly be used to boost pay at the South Florida Water Management District, according to a district proposal. While that could clash with rules for how to use money from the Federal Emergency...

Carol Flatto, chairwoman of the Miami Beach-based South Florida chapter of Americans for a Safe Israel, feels that the shift of power in Congress brought about by last week's election results will significantly impact the Middle East, recast alliances and...

Did Florida’s black vote seal the deal in re-electing Republican Gov. Rick Scott?
If so, Democrats should be concerned about one of their key voting blocs.The governor did the unthinkable, at least according to political convention. He doubled his...

Republicans should look at Tuesday's results not as a historic victory but as a historic opportunity to repair the party's damaged brand and to flip the script by turning President Obama and the Democrats into the "party of no."
Oh, it was...

As Americans watch to see how Republicans in Congress use their new power, Floridians will watch to see how Republicans in Tallahassee prepare the party for the 2016 election in the nation's largest swing state.
Republicans nationally and statewide...

Let's get one thing straight. The media keeps saying that a majority of Floridians elected Rick Scott as governor. Not true.
What is true is that a majority of Floridians who voted elected Scott governor. The majority of eligible Florida voters didn't...

I've been writing columns here for over 30 years, and I doubt any story affected me quite like that of Roswell Gilbert.
Many of you never heard of Roswell Gilbert. His story was huge national and even international news, but that's back in the mid-1980s....

Here is the post-election reality for Democrats in Florida:
Despite nearly $100 million spent on his behalf — including $12 million of his own money after saying he wouldn't self-finance — Rick Scott couldn't budge his standing with voters. In fact, it...

New leaders have been approved at Florida's top two public universities.Former Florida House Speaker John Thrasher will lead Florida State University while Cornell University Provost W. Kent Fuchs will lead the University of Florida. The State...

Regarding the heckler event, once again the governor of New Jersey is a national embarrassment. A public figure who is arrogant and brash.He is a public servant and yet treats the public as trash. Disgusting; typical New Jersey politics.The U.S. is...

Republicans are celebrating Gov. Rick Scott's narrow re-election victory, while Charlie Crist and the Democrats are left to dissect what went wrong.Whenever there's such a tight result — 48.2 percent for Scott, 47.0 for Crist — there's endless churning of...